The Tree of Life: An Audiophile Parable

Once upon a time, four boys, two from Western Sahara and two from Big Sur, visited Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Upon seeing The Tree of Life in the Animal Kingdom, the boys from Western Sahara exclaimed, "Wow, that's a big tree!" while the boys from Big Sur said, "Hmm. That tree is not very big."

The end.

While the moral of the story is pretty obvious, the tree is neither big nor is it not very big, that's not the moral of our story. And it's not the moral of our story because two of the boys, one from Western Sahara and one from Big Sur, also happened to be audiophiles so they spent the next months of their lives on hi-fi forums, along with forum regulars, arguing over whether or not the Tree of Life in Walt Disney World is big.

Their motives were called into question, their ability to see was ridiculed, their honesty was suspect, and both were derided, attacked, and eventually 'ignored' by each other and those who disagreed with them over the bigness of the Tree of Life in Walt Disney World.

The other two boys, the ones who were not audiophiles, eventually saw each other's photos of the Tree of Life, which looked very much alike, on Instagram.